Autumn is the best time to plant lilacs in all except the coldest sections of the country. You may plant them in spring, of course, but you must be sure to do so only in the earliest weeks of spring before the leaves have started to unfurl.
If the plants have leafed out, there is less chance of complete success. Another factor is the weather. In spring, the weather is usually capricious and the soil too moist to work. In autumn, garden chores are fewer, less pressing, and plants are dormant so that chances of success are good.
Lilacs are so adaptable. They lend themselves to such a variety of uses that no garden, large or small, need be without at least one lilac.
When you consider:
- How they will enhance your terrace
- How they’ll fill the need for tall flowering shrubs in the border or elsewhere
- How they will round out and complete your garden picture
You’ll want to order several immediately. Then it won’t be long before you are enjoying bushels of blossoms every May.
Where and How Can Lilacs Best Be Used?
There are several useful ways of using Lilacs.
- Combined with tulips and other spring flowers
- Planted as border plants
- Planted as specimens
- Used as anchor plants by the house or terrace
Lilacs make good hedge plants, too, and it is not necessary (as some people feel) to use the common lilac species for this purpose.
French hybrid lilacs make very good hedges, suckering less than the species and requiring little maintenance. If they are planted 4′ to 5′ feet apart, they will soon fill the spaces between. They make a handsome informal hedge that won’t need shearing or clipping but can be kept in form and in good bloom by cutting blossoms for the house each spring. This kind of pruning is a pleasure.
Lilacs For Small Areas
True lilac enthusiasts will want to learn about the lilac species and grow as many as they have room for. However, the French hybrids have a wider array of colors and blossom forms and seem to be most suited to use on the small home grounds.
Of the species Syringa villosa and its hybrid children, the Henryi types bloom later than most lilacs. Syringa oblata dilatata is the earliest to flower and grows better in warm climates than do other species. Blooming time may be extended by growing both these species. They are large, broad shrubs and reach 8′ – 15′ feet tall at maturity.
Origins of The Common Lilac
The common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, is a native of Romania, Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, and Greece and was much esteemed in Turkey at least as long ago as the 16th century. It is believed to have been introduced into Western Europe by Busbccq, the Viennese ambassador to Constantinople, who brought the first seeds of tulips out of Turkey.
During the four centuries since lilacs came into European gardens, they have been sent out across the world to grow in many places. We know them well in America, where they flourish in the vigorous climates of the northern tier of states and well up into Canada.
Although they don’t grow well in the lower South, they do grow as far south as North Carolina. On the West Coast, they can be successfully grown from Puget Sound southward into the northerly parts of California.
Lilacs fit beautifully with all kinds of houses. The prejudice some people have toward placing them with modern houses has no real basis.
It probably stems from mental associations with the old-fashioned gardens of traditional homes in New England, gardens they graced from the time they were brought over from England by the early colonists.
Speaking of England, we know that the lilac was grown there at least as far back as 1597 when the plantsman Gerard, writing of it as the blew pipe tree, spoke of others calling it lillach or lilach.
Bacon wrote of it as the lelach, while other writers refer to it under various quaint names such as May flower, Prince’s feather, Roman-willow, laylock, and even lily-oak. (Perhaps this latter corruption stems from the fact that oak was known in parts of old England as ock, and lilac became lil-ock.)
In France, too, lilacs have been grown and admired for centuries. It was not until the 1870s, however, that a pair of French nurserymen named Lemoine made serious efforts at hybridization, which resulted in many of the named varieties still grown.
Although there was much hybridization done by Belgians and, later on, by American growers, the name French hybrid has been used to denote superior varieties, often without regard to origin.
Certainly, in the opinion of many, the early French creations have not been improved upon but merely equaled. Among the hybrids can be found large blossoms and an extensive color range, the result of many crossings, recrossings, and intelligent selection.
It may be that you will be a bit bewildered at first by the many colors, sizes, and forms of blossoms described online and in catalogs. But because of this wide choice, you can have exactly the right color and type of bloom to fit your garden.
How Does One Choose A Lilac?
There are only a few factors involved in choosing a Lilac. First of all, one must decide whether to buy own-root plants or whether to settle for those grafted or budded on other rootstocks.
Own Root or Grafted – Here Is What Each Offers
The own-root plant is grown from suckers or rooted cuttings. These are grown in the nursery until the proper size for sale – usually from 2′ to 4′ feet high. Because results are slower than with grafted plants, you’ll pay more for these than for grafted plants, but the results are more likely to approach 100 percent.
Grafted or budded plants achieve growth quickly and therefore can be sold for less. But plants grafted on ash or privet, the commonly used rootstocks, are likely to send up suckers from the rootstock.
When this occurs, the suckers must be removed. This requires constant attention to prevent the desired lilac from being crowded out by ash or privet. If plants are grafted on common lilac rootstock, you may find your hybrid overtaken by the common lilac suckers.
These are most difficult to distinguish because their leaves are so similar to those of the hybrid. Therefore, it is generally best never to buy plants grafted on common lilac understock.
It is possible to reduce the possibility of suckers from understock by planting at least 6″ inches deeper than the plant grew in the nursery. When this is done, the lilac stem may form roots in time. There is still the possibility that disease may enter the graft and cause the plant to weaken or die.
These factors must be balanced against the price and the possible replacement cost when making your choice between own-root or grafted lilacs.
Selecting Colors Of Your Lilac
In selecting colors, you will have a wide choice:
- Rosy lavender, the color of the classic old common lilac
- Deep, dark purple
- Blue, both pale and deep
- Pink, from lavender-pink to nearly a true pink
- Deep red-violet shades called magenta by many
- Pure white, ivory white
- Pale yellow rounds out the color range
Most colors appear in both double and single forms. Individual florets range from narrow or broad four-petal types to multipetaled types, according to the variety.
Blossom Trusses
Blossom trusses may be small and neat, as we find in the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, or huge and imposing as encountered in some of the fine hybrids.
Trusses range from about 6″ inches to over a foot long. The multiple flower heads are grouped so that they often measure 1 foot in width.
The single, narrow-petaled types frequently have a lacy, open effect, while the broad-petaled and double kinds usually give solid, thick masses of color.
Therefore, if you can manage only a few lilacs in your garden, you may achieve blossom-time contrast by planting hybrids of different textures and colors. After blooming, the grouped plants will give a solid mass of similar leaves, making a uniform background for other flowers.
Lilac Combinations
Combinations of lilacs with other plants offer wide possibilities. Dogwood, crab-apple, hawthorn, and other small trees provide a pleasing contrast. Flowering shrubs may be combined to give continuous seasonal bloom or to flower simultaneously with the lilacs. Forsythia, spirea, buddleia, and many others are good choices.
Rhododendrons (including azaleas), mountain-laurel, and Pieris may be grown wherever the soil is acid enough for them but not so acid that lilacs won’t grow well.
Lilac Soil Make It Slightly Alkaline
Lilacs prefer neutral to slightly alkaline soil, and pulverized limestone will achieve this. Evergreens are another good foil for lilacs.
For contrasting autumn foliage interplant with lilacs, other deciduous shrubs such as Euonymus alatus, aronia and the various members of the cornus and viburnum genera.
Tulips are good companions, and by planting the various types, the bloom extends over a long period. Iris, Phlox divaricata, candytuft, and aubrieta, will usually bloom with lilacs in most regions.
When Planting Lilacs – Dig A Large Hole!
Before planting your lilac, prepare the soil by digging at least a foot deep. Remove stones and other debris; mix fertilizer or rotted manure with soil and add humus if needed. Mix in a cup or more of pulverized limestone if the soil is acid.
Be sure to dig a large hole – 2′ feet is the minimum diameter, while 4′ to 5′ feet will give the lilac roots plenty of space in which to spread. Place plants a little deeper than they grew in the nursery – 2″ to 3″ inches for own-root plants and at least 6″ inches for grafted plants.
Spread roots carefully and fill around them with soil. Firm well and soak with water when the hole is half-filled. Then soak again when the hole is filled.
Mulch plants shortly before freezing weather. If your location is cold and windy, build a frame of wood about the plant and cover it with burlap. Remove the screen when growth starts in spring.
Spring-planted lilacs should also be mulched and kept moist through the first summer. If the soil has been fertilized at planting time, no further fertilizer will be needed in the first year. After that, fertilize generously. Use a couple of handfuls of a complete fertilizer around each plant every April.
Remove Spent Blossoms
Remove spent blossoms before seed pods form and prune lightly to keep plants in shape. Overgrown plants may be gradually rejuvenated by cutting a few of the older branches all the way back to the ground each year.
FGR-1158 by JB Brimer